Della was very quiet on the drive back to her apartment.

"Is everything all right?" Perry asked gently.

"Yes, yes, I'm just tired!" Della smiled weakly.

There was a moment of silence before Perry said,

"If I had wanted a liar for a secretary, I could have had my pick of the applicants before I met you, and most of them were better liars."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mason, but I can't tell you," Della looked down at her lap.

Perry glanced at her, then back at the road. He scowled in concentration as he tried to figure out what was wrong.

"Della," he began softly, "If you need any help-"

"No, Mr. Mason," Della insisted, "I-I can't tell you. He told me not to!"

"He? Who's he?" Perry's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, dear!" Della moaned when she realized she had said too much already.

"The guy who gave you the black eye, right?"

Della did not answer.

"I don't know anything at all about your home life, but is there someone who is pushing you around?" Perry looked at her closely.

"No, it's nothing like that," Della shook her head.

Perry was relieved to hear that. There was a long stretch of silence. Della sat there, glad her employer had dropped the subject, and Perry sat there going over everything in his mind. Perry finally snapped his fingers.

"How did you know that guy at the party?"

Della stared at him in terror.

"Did he threaten you?" Perry burned with anger, not at the girl beside him, but at the man who dared threaten her, "Did he attack you, and then tonight threaten you about telling on him?!"

Della suddenly sobbed. Perry's heart melted. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. She composed herself.

"He told me that if I told you, he would kill you! He said if he would hit a woman, just imagine what he would do to a man!"

Perry was flattered and touched that Della would rather him be safe than her attacker hurting him. He reached over and patted her shoulder,

"Don't worry, Della. Nothing will happen to me."

Della hoped he was telling the truth.

~~~~~PM~~~~~

Nothing happened that night, or all the next day. Perry put Paul on the job of looking into the man. There was nothing to be found about him!

"No one claims to know who he is, no one knows a name, and I cannot even find proof that the man exists!" reported Paul.

Perry knit his eyebrows together, "I would wonder if he was real, but I saw him myself."

"Did you hear anyone call him anything at the party? Even a nickname would help!"

"No, and Della does not know his name either."

"What if we went to see Elna Rance and get his name out of her?" suggested Paul.

"We are due in court in half an hour. Depending on what time we get out this evening, we can try then, or maybe talk to her as she leaves the court room."

~~~~~PM~~~~~

Reader: Before I go on with the story, I wanted to remind you of the Rance family. Howard Rance died of an illness. He left a very complex will which reveled that he had four sons (Jerome Rance, Arthur Dennon, Carlo Pierce, and Sheldon Rance) through four affairs he had with four different women. Howard also had a wife (deceased for ten years by this time), two children he had had with his wife (Bretta and Lawrence Rance who are 12 and 11 years old respectively), and he had adopted his step daughter, Elna Rance.

At the time of this story, Arthur Dennon has been murdered, Jerome Rance (Perry's client) has been accused of the murder, and Sheldon Rance is missing.

I know it is confusing, so I wanted to catch you guys up. :)

~~~~~PM~~~~~

"Objection! Calls for a conclusion of the witness!" called Perry Mason.

"Sustained," the judge replied without even looking up.

"Let me rephrase the question. Did the defendant ever express a wish to kill his stepbrother, the deceased?" the district attorney did not turn his attention from the witness.

"Oh, sure! We all wanted him dead, but Jerome was the only one who said he was going to kill him," Miss Kinner, the girlfriend of the deceased and the witness on the stand, said.

Perry frowned at the thought of a girlfriend who wanted her boyfriend dead.

"When did he say he was going to kill the deceased?" Hamilton Burger pressed.

"Well, it was right after he - the deceased, I mean - said that no man was safe and he was going to fight his father's will in court and...," the redhead in the chair droned on.

Perry Mason scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Della Street. Della read the note, looked back at Perry, and nodded. Perry smiled in satisfaction and turned to Paul Drake, who was sitting just behind them in the audience. When he turned, he saw a man he recognized all too well sitting in the back of the court room. It was the man from the party. The information Perry needed about Miss Kinner could wait; the man in the room was important.

"Paul, sitting in the back, two chairs down from the doors is the man from the party," Perry whispered.

"Right," Paul never glanced over his shoulder, but made a mental note as to where the guy was sitting.

"I have a feeling that Miss Kinner is going to be leaving right after her testimony. Maybe you can see if she knows who he is."

"Got it."

Paul stood and left the courtroom without even turning his head in the direction of the man. Perry glanced sideways at Della, but she was oblivious to what had just occurred.

"Your witness, Mr. Mason," Hamilton Burger smiled stonily at the defense table.

"Miss Kinner, you have recently met a lot of people, since the death of Howard Rance, the father of the deceased, correct?" Perry asked, suddenly getting an idea.

"Yeah, I guess," Miss Kinner nodded.

"Did you know any of these people prior to reading of Howard Rance's will?"

"Not all of them, no."

"Did you know the defendant, Jerome Rance before then?" Perry asked.

"No-"

"So all you knew of him was that after deceased, Arthur Dennon, your boyfriend said he was going to contest the will, the defendant threatened to kill him. Is that so?"

"I guess," Miss Kinner fiddled with her gloves.

"Had you heard anyone else threaten to kill Arthur Dennon?"

"No."

"So you do not know whether or not someone else already had."

"Correct, I guess," Miss Kinner winced.

"You said earlier, Miss Kinner, that everybody wanted Arthur Dennon dead. Why did you say that?"

"Well, uh," the witness glanced uncomfortably at the judge, "No one liked Arthur Dennon."

"Can you please point out those who are in the courtroom who did not like the deceased?" Perry instructed.

"Sure, erm, Elna Rance," Miss Kinner pointed to her, "Jerome Rance, Mauve Clead-"

"Who is Mauve Clead?" Perry had never seen that woman before.

"Oh, well, she is the young punks - uh, Bretta and Lawrence's nursemaid."

"Go on," Perry told her.

"And there was the butler who worked at the Rance estate where we all met to read the will, and there was Phil Rance," she finally pointed to the big man Perry was after.

"Who is Phil Rance?" Perry asked, casting a swift glance at Della, who shifted nervously in her seat.

"Oh, Phil is Howard Rance's nephew. Until the will reveled that Howard had more sons, Phil was going to get control of the Rance family business until Lawrence Rance was old enough to run it," Miss Kinner smiled proudly at her knowledge.

"Anyone else?" Perry smiled.

"Sure," Miss Kinner prattled off several more names.

"You know that all of these people disliked the deceased."

"Yeah; everyone wanted him dead," Miss Kinner spread her hands and chuckled.

"Including you?" Perry asked.

Miss Kinner avoided his eyes and did not answer.

"I have no more questions of this witness, your honor."

Dun-dun-duh!

I am so sorry it took me so long to post this! It is my senior year in high school and I have been busy with school, work, and church stuff. Hopefully I can have the next chapter up before the end of the month!

Thank you for reading, and please leave a review!